Stay Away
by AngelaRB
Summary: Tyrese is chit chatting with Carol. Daryl doesn't like it. Daryl doesn't know why he doesn't like it. Daryl is confused. What follows are brief one shots of how I imagine "Caryl" happening through season four.
1. Chapter 1

Daryl couldn't help but glance over, from time to time, at the table on the other side of the large room in the prison. Carol was sitting with the baby, and Tyrese was next to her and sitting just a _little_ too close to her. _What the hell is he doing?_

Oh, Daryl didn't mind Tyrese. He thought he was a decent man, good to have around, and a nice enough fellow to have in the prison. And Carol… Carol was nice to everyone. But, _what in the fresh hell was he doing? _He was apparently telling some kind of joke or funny story that was making Carol laugh so much that her shoulders were shaking and she had to hand the kid over to Beth. And… Now Carol was doing the same? They were laughing together. _What the hell is he doing?_

He shook his head and looked back down at his lap full of arrows he was repairing to avoid being seen staring. What did it matter what Tyrese and Carol were doing? People needed to laugh. People needed friends. But… Tyrese was the kind of man Daryl never could be. People trusted him immediately. You could tell he was well educated and had a good head on his shoulders. He was in the damn NFL, for god's sake. It took Daryl months for everyone to fully trust him, he barely made it out of high school, and he sounded like a damn hillbilly.

_If people could see inside your head and really knew how insecure you are,Dixon, you'd never hear the end of it. _

Daryl had to look up again when he heard another laugh come from Carol, and Tyrese squeezed her shoulder and finally got up. _What the hell, man? Why you squeezing her shoulder like that? _Carol was grinning from ear to ear. Oh, it wasn't any different than the grin she flashed any other time she heard a funny story or a good joke, but still…

"Whatever," Daryl muttered to himself as he looked down again to work on his arrows. Carol could laugh and have fun with whoever she wanted. She was a free woman. It was idiotic that it bothered him that it was _him_, though. Men like Tyrese reminded Daryl of what a total fuck up he was before the shit went down, but the fact that he made him feel like less of a man had nothing to do with Carol. A weird twinge fluttered through his stomach, and without even thinking he shot Tyrese a look that he was sure could have cut through stone. Daryl muttered to himself again, "Whatever… Idiot."

"You okay, man?" Tyrese must have seen the death glare Daryl felt on his own face, and being the upstanding fellow he was, decided to check it out.

"Yep." Daryl didn't even look at him. He didn't want to. He was a little overwhelmed by the fact that though he didn't dislike Tyrese at all, he kind of wanted to punch him in the face as hard as he could.

"I was just checking. You looked at me just now like you hated my guts or something. We all need to get along up in here and I don't want anyone to have a problem with me."

"Everyone thinks you're really funny." Daryl nearly smacked himself on the head with an arrow when he heard that come out of his mouth. _Really, dumbass? You sound like a twelve year old girl. What are you doing?_

"Huh?" It took Tyrese a moment, then a look of understanding came over him. "OH. Oh, man… No. I'm not trying to move in on your girl. I heard Carol talking about when she was a kid and would go on vacation every summer at the Gulf Coast, and I lived in a town real close to where she'd go when I was a boy. We were just trading stories, is all."

Daryl finally looked him in the eye and was surprised by how he had to force his next statement out of his mouth as if it was unnatural to say such a thing. "She's not my girl."

"Could have fooled me."

_Huh? _"Well, she's not."

"Hmm. Well, unless you want everyone you meet for the rest of your lives to think y'all are seconds from kissing you'd better stop doing what you're doing. There's something there, man. And she's a great lady. All I'm sayin'" Tyrese flashed a big smile and patted Daryl on the back before heading out to the other room where some of the older ladies who just joined them were cooking lunch.

Daryl couldn't move for a few moments. Everyone knew he and Carol cared for each other and were dear friends. He loved Carol a lot and would take a walker bite for her without hesitation. And while he probably wouldn't have given her a second look if they'd met on the street before the shit went down, she was pretty. Hell, she was beautiful. She was sincere and kind and loving and had blue eyes you could swim in…beautiful.

One of the many things he kept to himself was the fact that he never really gave anyone a second look. Oh, he knew he liked women and he'd admire a good looking lady from afar any time he saw one. It was just… Daryl wasn't a guy that any sane woman would want to have anything to do with. He could barely stand to be in the same room with himself sometimes, so he sure as hell wasn't going to submit another person to his bullshit. He let out a sigh that was probably audible to the others way on the other side of the large room, but he didn't care. Due to his reluctance to open up to anyone he'd missed out on a lot of things. He'd missed out on things that nobody would believe in a million years that he'd missed out on.

"What the fuck ever." Daryl slammed his arrows down on the floor and got up to go outside. He needed air. He was pissed at Tyrese again for making him think about this shit and he was pissed at Carol for sitting over there looking like a damn angel. _Oh hell no. Stop that shit, Dixon. Stop it. _

Everyone was looking at him, and he just knew Carol was going to walk over to him any second and just stand there like she does waiting for him to talk. And then he'd talk and look like an idiot. He couldn't talk to anyone right now. Daryl quickly went outside and took a deep breath. _Please don't come out here, Carol. Please. Please. _

"Daryl?" Carol peeked her head through the door and slowly approached him. "What's wrong?"

_So many things that you don't want to get involved with. _"Nothin." He immediately hated himself even more for sounding so mean.

"You looked like you were running out here to be sick. I just wanted to check up on ya. Sorry." Despite his rudeness, Carol flashed her shy grin that she only seemed to flash at him and turned to go back inside.

"Yeah. Stay away, Carol. There's nothing you need here." Daryl punched the fence and sat down on the cold concrete with his head in his hands. _Stay away. _


	2. Chapter 2

OKAY FINE! Let's say that the first part of this was in episode two or three of the next season. Now, maybe three episodes have passed and Daryl is keeping his distance from Carol because he can't get over that punch in the gut that we all felt during chapter one. And all of the shippers (me included) are wailing and flouncing because Caryl is being messed up by big dumb Daryl. (he he)

All Daryl wanted to do was take a nap in his cell. That's _all_ he wanted. Unfortunately, his few minutes of rest was disturbed by a tiny bolt of lightning entering his cell for a few moments and grabbing his crossbow.

"What the HELL?" Daryl shot up off of the bunk and ran toward the door.

Carol was already way ahead of him with the crossbow thrown over her shoulder. She stood about twenty yards away with her hand on her hip and an unusually perturbed look on her face. "It's mine now."

"You lost your mind, woman?" _Nobody _touched his crossbow. Daryl wished he had a camera so he could snap a picture of Carol standing there with her hip cocked out and it thrown over her shoulder because he never thought it was possible for her to exude that much sass, but dammit… _nobody touched his crossbow._

"Nope. I'm just tired of your bullshit, Daryl. What's your problem?"

Daryl looked down and saw Karen and Maggie looking up at them with slight little smirks on their faces. They scattered immediately and were giggling like a couple of little girls. _Had they given Carol the advice to do this? Am I living in junior high again?_ "What's my problem?" Daryl stepped a little closer, and Carol immediately stepped back to keep the same amount of distance between them. _Jesus, she's grinning. I'm being ganged up on by a bunch of women. _"What the hell is your problem?"

"My problem is that you have barely acknowledged the fact that I'm here for the last couple of weeks, and that's unlike you. Either tell me what I did to piss you off, or get the hell over yourself and go back to the way things were. I miss you."

_This isn't happening. I'm sleeping and I'm having a nightmare. _"I'm here."

"But you're not. Not like you used to be." Carol wiggled the crossbow on her back a little and smiled again. "Soo… until you tell me what the problem is this is my crossbow. I'd better go outside and learn how to use it."

Daryl felt naked and helpless as he watched Carol walk away with his weapon. He must have looked like the village idiot standing there with his mouth agape. _Should I chase after her? Should I take it from her? What the hell, man? _Carol had seen him use the crossbow hundreds of times so he had faith she could use it without shooting herself in the leg, if she actually intended on using it outside. He needed to think about a few things. He needed to think about how cute – no – how painfully hot she looked with his crossbow, and he had to really think about how he was going to get it back.


	3. Chapter 3

The way I see it, this would be the last three minutes of the episode in which the previous part happened about fifteen minutes in…

Daryl was fearless when it came to fighting physical battles with the living and the dead, but when it came to dealing with personal battles with people he cared about he was the biggest wimp in the world.

He did everything he could to not show it, but up until the last conversation he ever had with Merle he was shaking in his boots every time there was something that just _had_ to be said. Daryl just never knew the right way to say what was on his mind. The old him that he was glad he'd figured out how to store in the back of his mind and lock away just yelled a lot and threw punches when any kind of conflict came up. The new him that he was still trying to figure out just sounded…awkward in his brain every time he opened mouth.

And now he had to get his crossbow from Carol. Carol was mad at him. Daryl was tempted to let her have the damn thing and just use the old one.

He couldn't deny that she was the easiest person to talk to that he'd ever met in his life, and the awkward side of himself that he hated usually stayed out of his head. Then again, she hadn't really been upset with him since that time that seemed so long ago when they barely knew each other and he held on to the hope that he'd find her little girl alive.

Daryl tried to clear his head and stepped outside so he could look out and see what she was up to. Carol was down by the fence sitting in the grass just holding the damn thing in her lap. Walkers were gathered by the fence waiting for the chance to eat her alive, and she didn't even look like she could hear them. _Is she waiting on me to come say something to her? _

"Of course she is…" Daryl whispered what he knew to himself. If he was going to get his crossbow back, he and Carol were going to need to have a talk. The sun was just starting to set, and despite the really unusual number of walkers outside of the fence it was turning into a beautiful evening. _Good a day as any to make an ass of yourself._

Daryl walked down the stairs, and made his way across the field to Carol. When she noticed him coming, he almost thought that she looked at him and smiled.

End of episode. Commence fake shipper heart-attack.


	4. Chapter 4

"You ready to talk now?" Carol looked up at him with a smile that made those blue eyes of hers twinkle, but she still kept a death grip on the damn crossbow. That smile barely hid a lot of the sass she'd started to show in the last few months. She wasn't going to give it up easily.

Daryl took a deep breath, and sat on the grass next to her. There was only about three feet of space between them. _Just grab it and run. _It was an attractive option, sure. Unfortunately, Carol was holding on to the crossbow so tightly that if he tried to just take it, it would probably hurt her hands for maybe… a minute. He was going to put himself through this embarrassment to avoid giving Carol a sore pair of hands for a few brief moments. _Merle is probably laughing at you from his grave._

"Ain't nothing to talk about."

"Then tell me what I did to offend you."

Daryl couldn't believe what he was hearing. She really thought she had done something wrong? "You didn't do anything…I'm not offended."

Carol turned on the grass to face him and put the crossbow on the ground right behind her. "Then what's the problem? You haven't spoken to me or acknowledged that I'm here for entirely too long, and I can't do this without you. At first I thought you just needed to be alone while you mourned for Merle, but dammit…"

She slammed her little fists on her knees, and for a few moments Daryl couldn't take his eyes off of her clinched hands. From the way her voice cracked when she said that, he thought there was a chance there was a tear or two in her eyes. Daryl couldn't handle any more tears. "Dammit what?"

"I need someone to talk to." Carol gave him a lingering glance and looked down at her knees right along with Daryl.

"Looks like you got plenty of new friends to talk to. You've gotten pretty friendly with Tyrese." He immediately wanted to take one of his arrows and ram it into his eye. _Maybe she didn't hear the dripping sarcasm in your voice, moron. Maybe… Please._

He didn't have anywhere near that kind of luck. Carol's eyes, that were previously expressing nothing but hurt and confusion, started to dance again. "Oh… Yes, Tyrese. Mmhmm…" Carol licked her lips and smiled a little. "He's really terrific."

_Is she messing with me?_ "Nice fella, yep."

"Very nice. And he used to play with the Falcons! Can you believe that? He seems to really like me too. We've been chatting every day, just about." Carol shot him a glance from the corner of her eyes, and snort laughed in a way Daryl had never heard her laugh before.

"What?" Daryl wanted to snatch the crossbow away from her so she'd stop embarrassing him. _What the hell is she thinking?_

"I'm laughing at you, Daryl. Are you really jealous of Tyrese? Really?"

She spoke as if it was the most ridiculous thing she'd ever heard. The man he used to be would have told her to go fuck herself and stormed away, but Daryl just looked her in the eyes and let her keep talking.

Carol sat up on her knees and leaned toward him. "Tyrese is my friend. So is Rick. So is Hershel. So is Glenn. See a pattern here? I try to be a friend to everyone around me who is deserving of a friend. It doesn't mean I want to grab them by the back of the head and kiss them. You have no reason to be jealous of anyone."

Daryl was rendered speechless. Suddenly, Carol got a look on her face that made him think she'd said more than she wanted to say.

She stood up and picked up the crossbow. "So are we friends again?"

"Yeah." Daryl's voice barely croaked out that mere word.

"Good." Carol dropped the crossbow in front of him and walked toward the prison.

Daryl _almost_ followed her.


End file.
